Deconstructing DNA

By Ayala Ochert

SALVADOR Dali, the surrealist painter, had a fascination with DNA and included it in several of his works. He was, like many who followed him, in the thrall of the double helix, calling it “a Jacob’s ladder of genetic angels, the only structure linking man to God”. So it was by no means odd when, three years ago, a British artist named Mark Curtis chose to embark on his own series of drawings and paintings of DNA. But the outcome of his artistic journey is truly radical. If you thought the structure of DNA was a closed book, sealed by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, then it may be time to think again.

Seeing his artistic venture as an “investigation into the nature and depiction of visual space”, Curtis never intended to prove anyone wrong. But as sketches and rudimentary physical models began to clutter up his studio, Curtis became at first puzzled, then doubtful, and finally horrified, as he found that the structure proposed by Watson and Crick, and accepted universally by biologists, fails to conform to what he calls “geometrical principles”. Fortunately, wonder has now replaced horror. For Curtis has discovered a striking alternative structure that he claims works far better than Watson and Crick’s.

Is it really possible that scientists have been wrong about DNA for 45 years? Could a lone artist working with pen and pencil, with rope and wooden blocks, discover something that tens of thousands of scientists with computers and microscopes have overlooked? You might think that Curtis must somehow be sadly mistaken. But the story may not be …

To continue reading this premium article, subscribe for unlimited access.